McKay says Justice Dept. tried to ‘buy’ his silence

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday released written answers from John McKay and seven other fired U.S. Attorneys in advance of a hearing Thursday. The attorneys were questioned about their dismissals. The firings have turned into a political scandal that threatens Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

As questions intensified about the firings of U.S. Attorneys, John McKay received a telephone call in January from a senior Justice Department official. McKay had been told a month earlier that he was being replaced but the call from Michael Elston was in McKay’s final days as the U.S. Attorney for Western Washington. In what McKay decribes in written answers to Congressional questions, Elston told him in a “sinister voice'” that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would not smear McKay or ther other ousted attorneys if they remained silent. “I greatly resented what I felt Mr. Elston was trying to do: buy my silence by promising that the Attorney General would not demean me in his Senate testimony. I clearly and slowly told Mr. Elston that his description of what the Attorney General would be saying would have NOTHING to do with what I said or didn’t say publicly.”